Letters to the editor for July 2, 2019

Tuesday

Jul 2, 2019 at 2:01 AM

Canyon of high-rises

After looking at the rendering of what developers want to build to replace the Swamp restaurant, I was rather depressed. After reading the article and discovering that they will rip out $3.5 million in recent plantings and landscaping, it made me even more so. It does not look like Gainesville — perhaps Miami or Jacksonville, but not Gainesville.

Do we really need more student apartments? The ones down on the corner are not fully occupied, as are many others around the area. With all the empty storefronts up and down University Avenue, it makes me wonder how anyone can open a business and expect to make a profit.

I am not against progress, but there should be some constraint on removing another block or two. Perhaps the city should just let the developers clear-cut all the old one-story buildings along University Avenue and have them build a canyon of high-rise apartments and empty stores.

Richard DesChenes, Archer

Endless wars

Last week’s Democratic Party debaters managed to evade or ignore one of the most important issues facing our country: endless costly wars.

I waited in vain for some debater to point out that the wars we are fighting all over the world are killing our own people and vast numbers of others, and that the huge costs of increasingly lethal weapons and of the 1,350 overseas military bases have denied us citizens the infrastructure, schools, health care and economic opportunities we deserve.

These wars are immoral. They violate deeply held American values. And they don’t appear to have made us safe.

It’s better to have a diplomatic approach emphasizing the need to work together to preserve life on this beautiful plant from the ravages of climate change.

Dian Deevey, Gainesville

Clear distinction

I have tried to imagine what it would be like to be a member of a political party that every day tries to discredit a duly elected president and disenfranchise millions of voters, while wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on investigations that have already been decided.

The hypocrisy and pettiness started even before the inauguration. Some Democrats in Congress with no class decided to not attend the inauguration. The hypocrisy really started when James Comey became the star of the left when he went after Donald Trump, after Comey had been the villain for saying bad things about Hillary Clinton.

The craziness of the Democratic Party has been in full display in the debates. There is a clear distinction in what our president is doing and what these candidates want to do to us. Barack Obama said he wanted to fundamentally change our country and it will be complete with the election of some of these Democrats.

Wayne Blankenship, Starke

Waiting for change

After reading the June 28 article about Rex Tillerson, one must pause and question our president and his motives. In my experience, when you are an untrustworthy person, like Trump, you don’t trust others. Tillerson’s testimony is very troubling.

We have a president that does not read briefing papers, gets easily distracted and relies on family and other self-serving individuals to support his myopic view of our country and the world. He starts a fire and then comes to the rescue while conservatives stand around with their thumbs in their ears.

We wait while Trump has his finger on the nuclear button. The Saudi crown prince orders the killing of an American resident and we wait. Trump trusts dictators that openly want to destroy our democratic system and we wait. There have been mass shootings too numerous to remember and we wait.

Wait no more. Vote next November and send Trump back to his tower.

Martin Werts, Gainesville

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